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Friends of the Environment Abaco, Bahamas | ||||||
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The Structure and Dynamics of the Abaco Pine Forest | ||
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Today, the original structure and the dynamics of the Abaco Pine Forest has been influenced by commercial logging starting in the 1905 when the Bahamas Government granted the first lumbering license and a saw mill was established near Wilson City. This mill ran for 12 years milling Abaco Pine. As the resources were depleted, the mill was relocated. . In 1944, the Abaco Mill was move to Grand Bahamas where large scale logging operations continued until the 1970's. | |||||||||||||||
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In 1959, Owens-Illinois bought the Abaco Mill and came to Abaco and set up pulp and sugar cane operations. The last cuttings in Abaco was in 1964 due to hurricane damage to the logging road that Owens-Illinois had built down the center of Great and Little Abaco. Owens-Illinois at this time moved it's logging operations to Andros. This sudden exodus from Abaco, saved the last of the "old Growth" pine on Little Abaco from being harvested. | |||||||||||||||
When you are driving through Abaco's pine forests, you will notice that all the Abaco pine trees are relatively the same size. This is because they are all about the same age. Through the logging operations, seedling were intentionally left uncut and these seedling have been primarily responsible for the regeneration of our Abaco Pine Forest. | |||||||||||||||
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Today, the Abaco Pine Forest is in good condition except for this lack of age diversity. This is due mainly to the canopy being to dense and uniform, restricting the necessary light to cause adequate regeneration and where the canopy does gap open and allow the necessary light, there have been too many fires that have killed off the seedlings. Agricultural efforts have also caused the lose of the pine forest. Once an areas has been used for agriculture, the soil content has changed so that the pine trees can no longer survive. | ||
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Now that the pine forests are protected, it is now up to the Bahamas to implement a management plan to help diversify the pine forest, manage the fires to keep the broadleaf undergrowth from growing too tall so the pine seedling have the opportunity to grow and flourish. | |||||||||||
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This process will take time to study and implement but the process has been started so the Abaco Pine forest and all that lives within the forest will be here for future generations to enjoy. | |||||||||||
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